Interesting

There is a very interesting article on the BBC News website today, asking 'How Little Money Can a Person Live On?'  I certainly score a massive fail on the £12 per week to eat healthily part - though the article does concede that the actual cost would probably be double that if people are not confident in the kitchen or don't have the necessary equipment.  I am fairly confident in the kitchen and probably have all necessary equipment but I still can't manage to feed myself on only £12 per week.

Transport costs would also be impossible here in Bristol.  I see the article cites that a four-mile single trip can cost as much as £2.20 in the North East.  I've got news for them, a single trip that is no more than a mile costs £2.20 in Bristol!!  Yup, our bus fares here are shockingly expensive - much more so than for the same transport company (First) than they were in Essex.  There is a 'Fares Fair' campaign underway in Bristol to try and get the bus fares brought down to a more reasonable level.  We can only hope that the campaign succeeds.

I do much better with the clothing side of things as I don't think I spend the average of £4.80 per week on clothing - approx. £250 per year.  I can't remember that last time I bought anything new to wear (though did have some new knickers and socks for Christmas and two new bras for my birthday last year.)

I also don't spend anything like the £11.50 per week average on takeaways or restaurant meals and alcohol - though I did have to buy a bottle of red wine last week for cooking purposes (cheapest I could find was £3.99 from the corner shop.)

I don't have a pet (though Mum's cat Lily is a pretty good substitute), the car is off the road at the moment, and I only have a cheapo pay-as-you-go mobile phone which I bought five years ago for a tenner.  I still couldn't live on £53 per week and I pity the poor souls who have to.

Anyway, have a look at the article and see what you think?  Some of the statements really annoyed me - this one for example

'Conservative MP Alec Shelbrooke has called for a welfare cash card to ensure
that benefits are spent on "essential" items only - food, housing, transport,
clothing and energy.

They would be prohibited from spending the money on "luxury" goods such as
Sky TV, cigarettes and alcohol - items which "hard-working families" have to cut
back on when money is tight.'

But then a Tory, who's probably never had to worry about money in his life, would come out with a crass statement like that, wouldn't he?

Comments

[Maureen]

Blood boiling time.

[Caroline]

Very interesting how prices differ in different areas of the same country, isn't it?

I did chuckle a bit at the Sky TV thing at the bottom, though, as it reminded me of something. I have a flat that I rent out (I lived in it before I moved to Devon to live with Ashley), and several years ago, Ashley and I had occasion to go round to see the tenants (whose rent is paid in full by Housing Benefit, as neither of them work). They were watching TV, and it was some sporting event that Ashley was quite interested in, and hadn't been able to watch because it was only on Sky Sports and at the time (although we were both working full-time) we couldn't afford a Sky package that included the sports and movies.
We were both rather put out that these tenants, who lived on benefit, could afford Sky Sports, and we couldn't!

[fiona]

I read some of this article this morning but as I'd just finished a night shift I didn't get to the part that you refer to. Sorry Elizabeth, but I think Alec Shelbrooke's idea isn't half bad. I know of several people who were just too bone idle to even try to get a job and relied on the state to provide. The people I knew all smoked and ran cars and one (an ex neighbour) had a mobile phone permanently clamped to her ear and came home from town with new clothes every week. This is what makes my blood boil.

[Maureen]

I'm much more concerned about the bone idle rich making fortunes out of ordinary British folk and manipulating them ( via the odious Daily Mail,Telegraph etc ) into thinking that "dole bludgers" are their enemy.
There was an excellent article in the Guardian just the other day about 25 urban myths ( you know the type: you're never further than 6 feet from a rat)and one of those was about unemployed people. Wish I could find it to share. Wish, if I could find it, I knew how to share it :)

[Mrs Madrigal]

£12 a week on food? Even for one person, cooking from scratch that is a low figure. You could spend that on your five a day alone!

[Vanessa]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/24/10-great-urban-myths-debunked?INTCMP=SRCH
for Maureen, see her comment above.
You just type the words you remember into the search section at the top. i.e. "urban myth rat" x